Poverty Bay club cricket seasons kick off again

Moshims Spice Horouta completed a Poverty Bay Premier Grade club cricket trophy treble last season. At rear are Jaswinder Basra (left), Nandan Shah, James Birrell, Yash Taak, Viren Patel, Harmanpreet Gill, Gautam Sareen, Simarjeet Basra and vice-captain Shubham Ralhan. Front: Babaldeep Singh, Gurishwar Singh and captain Jagroop Singh.

Poverty Bay cricket lovers can breathe once more.

In local games will tomorrow, Premier grade teams will compete for the 40-over Doleman Cup from midday, while the Senior B grade teams’ quest in the T20 Reserve Grade at the Harry Barker Reserve commences at 2pm.

Observers will no doubt see Moshim’s Spice Horouta teams in both grades once again bat aggressively – under Jagroop Singh, Te Waka won the Premier Grade Triple Crown.

Grade champions the Pioneer Ngatapa Green Caps can be relied upon to play solid all-round cricket in the same style that took them to victory over HSOB Presidents by 66 runs to claim the Hope Cup.

Singh and company have Coastal Concrete Old Boys’ Rugby, under Matthew Cook, as their first opponent.

Despite being without a raft of experienced, quality players, a youthful High School Old Boys crew under Taye McGuinness will battle the Charlie Whitfield-led Gisborne Boys’ High School 1st XI.

For the first time, GBHS has released school leavers to clubs en masse before Christmas to ensure that four teams would play in the top tier.

McGuinness, at 18, is the youngest skipper of an HSOB Premier team. Seventeen-year-old Whitfield is, like McGuinness, a keen and intelligent cricketer.

Poverty Bay club cricket draw

Premier Grade

Round 1 – midday, 40-over Doleman Cup

Harry Barker Reserve Representative Wicket

Moshim’s Spice Horouta v Coastal Concrete Old Boys’ Rugby

HBR ground No.1

Gisborne Boys’ High School 1st XI v High School Old Boys

B Grade club cricket

Round 1 - 2pm, T20

HBR ground No.2

GBHS 2nd XI v Bollywood HSOB Presidents

HBR ground No.4

Pioneer Ngatapa Green Caps v Moshim’s Spice Horouta

Poverty Bay Senior “C” Grade cricket results – Wednesday, October 29

Round 1, T20

Nelson Park No.5

Gisborne Boys’ High School The Blues & Royals 119-6 (Raffaele Colucci 27, Patrick McInnes 25 - Tristan Flamwell 3-28-4, Cody McMurray 2-28-4) beat GBHS The Admiralty 60 all-out in 10.5 overs (Tristan Flamwell 20 - Raffaele Colucci 2-4-3, Kobe Donnelly 2-9-3) by 59 runs.

Nelson Park No.4

GBHS The King’s Own 87-4 in 15.3 overs (Harvey Reynolds 21, Pranash Senthooran 19* - Charlie Whitfield 1-8-3, Finnbar Whitfield 1-13-4) beat GBHS The Life Guards 86-4 (Finnbar Whitfield 32*, Charlie Whitfield 19* - Jake Kirkpatrick 2-28-4) by two wickets.